doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Off topic issue for those who hunt............

unblock...Ours were always family dogs, and close with the kids. None of them had furniture rights, but the good ones had sneaking rights.

You already trained up a tweety bird dog, that thing is way behind the game bird dog curve. Stop barking out the home fun commands, and get pro help. Get up at o'dark thirty one morning, gather up a small pile of gear, and lay a shotgun across it. If the dog even wakes up, does it look at you like it wants a snack, or is it twitching with excitement and fired up, because it can't wait for the hunt.

Some books and video can be a great help, but don't bother if you can't put the serious time in. Figure it out yesterday, being generous you only have three months...block

SKB: I think you need a new truck!

This was old ride

Whoa is the most important command. Once they learn that, as a rock solid command, you never lose control. Whoa, then direct them what to do next. Don’t be vague. Clear directions, which they can do. I see dogs being told complex things, which confuse them. Then the trainer gets mad. Not the dogs fault her person does not have a clue. Training is built on easily achieved steps, which are repeated over and over again to build confidence in your dog.

There is nothing the matter with an obedient dog who is learning how to hunt or retrieve. But nobody wants a dog not under control, running around without and clue what to do. Worst your dog could be injured or killed because you put it in a bad situation, without the ability to keep her safe with a simple whoa command. If she is running towards a busy road you must be able to stop her, then get her to return to task. I marvel at watching my dog figure out and complete things. She is so happy when she does them. Comes right back and wants to do it again and again.

Eightbore is right on. The Navhda group offers the Green training book. It will give you a step by step instruction in training a versatile hunting dog. His idea of the essential commands is good, too.
https://www.navhda.org/

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Bringing a young dog pheasant hunting is in my opinion not a good thing. First, wounding a cock pheasant and letting a young dog go and retrieve it there is a good chance for him/her to get spurred and will most likely never retrieve another. Second most wild pheasants will run when there is cover, and unless your dog stops at the imaginary line, that bird is flushed beyond gun range. It takes a novice dog to hunt wild pheasants. If I were you I would shoot pen raised hens for awhile, or quail. Pen raised chukkers are good but they only want to fly once or twice and that's it. You have your work cut out but there is nothing more pleasurable than seeing your dog work and retrieve. Good luck. By the way there is no better dog than a Springer for pheasants when trained properly and I was a Setter man. There will be a lot of naysayers about that line but it is the truth.

Add me to the naysayer list. My favorite dog started at 16 weeks on wild birds. Never ever regretted that for even an instance. Wish i could do that with the new kid.

Springers are not the best dogs for everything, but you would be hard pressed to find a better dog for Pheasants than a well bred Springer.

Jimmy. Take your dog out to Cherrybend. Tell them you want 3-6 hens. They hold better. They can give you a strip out of the way so you can work your dog. You want success and easy birds for her to learn on. You don’t care about overkill so take your 12 and give her clean kills. You can even ask them to place the bird on one side of the strip so you can direct your dog towards them for easy marks. Keep her close and work quickly to drop the birds within easy retrieval. One good retrieval is what you want. Don’t scold her for failures but praise her for good ones. Training is all building on wins instead of fighting bad looses.